All languages to have equal place in KPK: Iftikhar

PESHAWAR - Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Information and Culture and ANP Parliamentary Leader Mian Iftikhar Hussain has said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the place of various mother languages adding that due representation will be given to all these languages according to their status.

He said this while addressing a World Mother Tongues Day function arranged by the POHA Foundation at Nishtar Hall Peshawar on Thursday. On this occasion, intellectuals of mother tongues and literary personalities from all over the province attended the function and presented their papers.

The Information Minister said that it was the need of the hour to provide equal opportunities to all the mother tongues of all regional areas which, he added, will pave way for national unity and solidarity. He added that language was the identity of a nation and without it a nation loses its authority.

He said that the present provincial government was striving hard for the promotion of all the mother tongues of the province.

The minister continued that the government has formed regional languages promotion authority for the promotion of mother tongues of the province comprising of the intellectuals of different languages. He added that the provincial government has included all the mother tongues in the syllabus and declaring them compulsory from class one to higher secondary level.

Mian Iftikhar said that Pashto was a complete language wherein education of medical and engineering could be attained.

However, he added that a committee on provincial level comprising experts of other languages has completed its work for inclusion of mother languages in the syllabus. He said that teaching of Pashto would also be taught in the private educational institutions side by side the state-run institutions and those violating would be brought to book.